This invention relates to gages or measuring devices for filling syringes with medicine, such as insulin.
Many people are required to self-administer doses of medicine using syringes. For a normal person, this is usually not a problem, because the syringes are clearly marked as to fill quantity and are fairly easy to manipulate. However, for people who are blind or have impaired eyesight or similar disabilities, filling a syringe accurately and conveniently is difficult, if not impossible. This is particularly common in the case of diabetics who frequently suffer from impaired vision or blindness. Not only is there a problem of not being able to see the quantity markings on the syringe, but frequently there is inability or difficulty involved in putting the syringe needle into the medicine bottle. The needle may be guided or touched with the fingers rendering the needle unsterile, and sometimes the needle is bent or broken in the process.
In the past, diabetics as home who are unable to see to prepare their own insulin dosages had to rely on another person to fill the syringes for them. Obviously, if another person was not available, a daily insulin injection could be missed or at least delayed endangering the person's health.
As a partial solution to this problem, insulin gages have been produced in the past in the form of a plastic strip having an opening for locating a syringe barrel flange therein. The plastic strip can then be cut to length corresponding to the distance the syringe plunger should be withdrawn to fill the syringe with the desired dosage. A difficulty with this plastic strip type gage, however, is that the gage must first be cut to the desired length by a person with normal eyesight. Also, once the gage has been cut, it cannot be used again for larger doses if it is necessary to increase the level of medication for the patient.
As an improvement on the plastic strip type insulin gage, another type of gage has been produced wherein adjustable stops are provided on the body of the gage rather than cutting the gage to length for a particular dosage. While this type of gage can be adjusted for larger or smaller doses, it is still necessary to have a person with normal eyesight make the adjustments. Also, in the prior art adjustable stop type gages there is usually nothing to guide the syringe needle into the medicine bottle, so it is still likely that the needle will be touched making it unsterile.